Motivating factors for frontline healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: A survey in Japan

Koji Morishita; Kozo Katase; Masahiro Ishikane; Yasuhiro Otomo

doi:10.1007/s12144-022-04177-6

Motivating factors for frontline healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: A survey in Japan

Curr Psychol. 2022 Dec 31:1-9. doi: 10.1007/s12144-022-04177-6. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Koji Morishita¹, Kozo Katase², Masahiro Ishikane³, Yasuhiro Otomo¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Acute Critical Care and Disaster Medicine, Tokyo Medical and Dental University Hospital, 1-5-45 Yushima, Bunkyo-Ku, Tokyo, 113-8510 Japan.
² Section of Research Development, Department of Public Health, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan.
³ Disease Control and Prevention Center, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.

Abstract

Healthcare workers (HCWs), who are at the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic, treated COVID-19 patients under many types of stress for over a year. As an external motivating factor, incentives could be important for HCWs dealing with COVID-19. However, there has been no research regarding the change in the consciousness of HCWs during the unrelenting waves of COVID-19. Therefore, we conducted a survey of HCWs during different waves of COVID-19 (the second and fourth waves in Japan). An open web-based survey was conducted among HCWs who wore PPE while treating COVID-19 patients. The first survey of HCWs in Japan was conducted from August 27 to September 9, 2020, while the second survey was conducted from April 7 to May 10, 2021, during the second and fourth waves, respectively. The first and second surveys had 157 and 125 participants, respectively. There were no significant differences in the characteristics of the participants in the first and second survey groups regarding the types of occupation, age, sex, or full-time status. The percentage of HCWs who required financial incentives to maintain motivation remained high (88.5% vs. 82.7%). In addition, most frontline HCWs hope for regular SARS-CoV-2 PCR testing, which will be provided free of charge, as a necessary incentive. External motivating factors, such as financial and other incentives, were important to maintain the motivation of HCWs during the second and fourth waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-04177-6.

Keywords: COVID-19; Healthcare worker; Incentive; Motivation.

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